Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Saturday, April 06, 2013

To My Dear Annoyed No Longer Reader of Mine

When I choose an exactly right word you happen not to know to say something it's hardly because I wanted to impress or upset you who claim not to be able to understand what I am saying as a result of this choice, however that's even supposed to work.

2 comments:

Black guy from the future past said...

What's this about?

Dale Carrico said...

Oh, some dumb dumb e-mailed me in a snit that I was "losing [them] as a reader" because my desire to "feel superior" made me try to be incomprehensible. I actually get that a lot. Needless to say, a person to whom I am incomprehensible is not "a reader" I can lose in the first place (they're already "lost" to me in their incomprehension) and it is hard to understand what makes somebody think I would write in a way calculated to annoy strangers by being just incomprehensible enough to most of them, however I could figure that out, but not comprehensible enough to actually be comprehended saying stuff. See what I mean? It seems a rather weirdly convoluted theory especially considering how often I hear variations of it from those who seem to think making strangers feel insecure must be some sort of catnip for somebody like me. Not that I think I'm the world's clearest, best, or nicest writer or anything, I never expected to be everybody's cup of tea and I never promised anybody a rose garden and so on and so forth, but I do think people of good will and good sense who make a good faith effort can get at what I'm up to on its merits. It's no big thing, tho'.